Foreign Communities in the Port Area of Naples: Cohabitation, Interaction, Patronage, and Display during the Spanish Viceroyalty
During the time of the Spanish Viceroyalty, Naples, a commercial crossroads in the heart of the Mediterranean, hosted numerous congregations and confraternities run by groups of foreigners who shared common origins. Due to the mostly commercial interests of their members, these charitable institutions erected their churches and oratories mainly in the port area. The area became a densely populated, multicultural neighborhood where strangers from all over the world lived and worked in close proximity. Unlike in Rome, where the foreign communities were largely composed of clergy and curial employees, the members of the ‘national’ confraternities in Naples were mostly merchants, artisans, and soldiers. In addition to the Spanish, who maintained direct relationships with the vice-royal court, the Genoese and the Florentines were among the most influential groups. But other nationes also organized themselves into confraternities, including the Germans and the Lombards. This project investigates the art and material culture of these communities in terms of the interplay between imported and local traditions and examines how artistic features could function as visual manifestations of complex collective identities.
